Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-06
TEXAS IRON.

A special to THE GAZETTE from Rusk,
Saturday, contained the following item
''An agent representing ST. Louis CAPT
talists is here buying ore and timber
lands. He says he will buy $4,000 acres,
and that the syndicate will Immediately
construct several iron furnaces in and
around Rusk. If they do, it will give US
q tremendous BOOM" From "the reports
of the superintendent and financial agent
of the Texas state penitentiaries, for two
years ending October 81, 1885," THE GA
zETTE takes the following;
The Nineteenth Legislature made an
appropriation of $4,000 for the develop
ment of the iron industries at Rusk. l
had been directed by your board to en-
ploy an expert to visit Rusk and make an
examination of the furnace plant, iron
ore, lime rock, timber, etc, and make
report of the result of his examination.
After correspondence with, and upon the
recommendation of several leading iron
men, employed Mr.. John Birkenbine of
Philadelphia to make the examination.
His visit and examination was made
about the first of June, 1885, and in July
he submitted an interesting and exhaus-
tive report, in the conclusion of which
he says: 81 have no hesitation in saying
that you have q furnace plant better
equipped than a majority of the charcoal
furnaces in the United States. In
fact, 1 do not think there are
more than fifteen in the country
which may be considered equal to it in
all respects. The ore supply appears to
be sufficiently abundant for the require
ments of the present and near future, and
the quality, as indicated by analysis
made, will give you an ore richer than
the average ores throughout the United
States, and produce iron of good quality.
You have unusually good facilities for
manufacturing charcoal cheaply, and of
superior quality. You are unfortunate
in having no supply of good fux i'm
mediately available, but this disadvantage
is less than it would be in furnace using
mineral fuel. You can produce iron with
an expenditure for labor no greater than
the average at charcoal furnaces through
out the United States, and the cost
of making pig IRON at Rusk is
less than a majority of the fur
naces in the country. You are
at a disadvantage in having but one
railroad, and that narrow gauge, but
this may be overcome largely by the cor
dial cooperation of the officers, which
they assured me you would receive.
There seems to be variety of industries
which can be made to pay, and utilize
large portion of the pig iron produced in
the furnace, but it is probable that you
will have to, at least for the present, COM
tine several Of these to obtain satisfac-
tory results, and after wards, if the indi-
cations point to certain Of these being
most advantageous, the others can be
dropped. With the large area of your
state, its rapid growth, and increased de-
mand for all manufactures of iron which
accompany such development, there
would seem to be q good opportunity for
the transformation of such of the pro-
duct of your furnace as you cannot sell,
into merchantable commodities.
After the consideration of Mr.. Birken-
bine's report, your board determined to
make Immediate preparation for starting
the furnace, and authorized me to employ
Mr.. R. A. Barrett of st. Louis as furnace
Mr.. Barrett had super
intended the construction of the furnace,
and had great confidence in making it
perform all that had originally been
promised. He came on at once, and set
about making the necessary preparation
for its operation. He put in q new bosh,
the shape to the same as origi-
nally constructed. The furnace was
started for an experimental test on the
3O.h- of November, 1885, and ran, with
splendid results, to the 10th of January,
1886, when the coal became exhausted, |
and it was blown out. The output of |
IRON was seldom less than % tons per
lay, and frequently over 80 tons per
lay. From this blast the total yield was
1914 tons of excellent iron.
The furnace was again put in blast on
July last, and is now in blast, and the
Yield to date from this second blast is
}O69 tons. Total output of the two blasts i
ElI9 tons, which is worth at fair cash
SIC per ton, or S65,S08.
AS to the quality of the iron, submit
he following extracts from letters re-
eived from iron men to whom samples
we're sent. The johnson Iron Works,
Jew Orleans, says: "The sample of pig
ron sent US has been used up in the man.